I used a bit old picture but it still is enough up-to-date. Basically I see one problem in this layout. The top left corner's rock is what causes it because the starting bases aren't that protected and there's little advantages to stay there in the open. Now of course the left side's team moves to the north west corner because it is more covered, the chances that there is going to be much traffic are small because the bottom has one very good place for both teams to establish a base there and quickly control 3 res spots. However controlling those 3 res quickly also means both teams want to get them and that causes high traffic to that area and a lot of res bombing and so on. Now when we take a look at the right side team's starting area it is equally as bad as the left side's. Open area a bit covered with rocks BUT that side doesn't have any cover at the north east corner either. So I thought there has to be some advantage to stay in the starting base and not try to move to the north east making a base which is out there in the open and just very vulnerable to attacks. So I thought let's add a small rock to the right side's starting base area. That way that area has advantage to stay in that area because it is easier to protect now and easier to hold so you aren't forced to go to north east and set another vulnerable base out there in the open or go to the south where will for sure be big battles raging all the time. At least I see that little rock as good improver there. Also people couldn't just shoot straight from the south east corner to the base at north east corner because that rock blocks that possibility. Though I think this rock shouldn't reach all the way up to the sky so people could fire over it and thus not make it overpowered and too easy to protect the base at the right side. And here are my view where possible base setups could be. So what do ya think Silky friend?
As in 1 level ... yes ... or at least most likely As in flat ... no ... the terrain has smooth hills everywhere I'm not sure if the asymmetry will ruin the map. I've seen people say they don't like it cause it favors BE, and people who say it favors NF. So untill it's been properly playtested i think i keep it as it is.
i like the layout that silk proposed, but just to "equal" it out, make the little forest to the top right a little bigger/thicker to give that ref a bit cover that the top left would have.
I was thinking about enhancing emp_bush, so i figured i might as well try these new custom grass textures in bush. Does ... http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/234836/emp_bush_ob40000.jpg look better than http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/234836/emp_bush_ob30001.jpg ?
Flat looks awesome, dunno how it plays cause of totaly retarded stacked team. What ruins the look is the far away version for the tree model :/ but thats something the devs have to fix. The grass looks good on bush, you could use some other textures like mud on some areas cause what always bothered me about bush is that every part of the map looks the same :/
it does but the texture looks a bit large to me on the rocks.. try decreasing the size by 10-20% if that won't hurt performance too much
Wasn't sure if it was only me. The light is exactly the same, the amount of alpha blending on the ground is exactly the same and the alpha on the rocks is almost exactly the same. The standard textures are very nice already as well. Yet when i tested the map it looked sooo much better eventhough nothing really changed. Maybe it was one of those "personal taste" things where i think it looks awesome and others say it's not really better.
For emp_bush: Changed the colors and intensity of the lighting Changed the skybox Changed to my own textures that were created for emp_flat Added 1 more rock Added very few bushes to break up the monotone hilly horizon ONLY did this for 10% of the map so far to test, but it's pretty much what i wanted the map to look so i'll be doing the other area's in the same way mostly. The problem will now be to make bush look different from flat, as i'm using the same textures. Edit: Don't pay attention to the drop in framerate. Ingame i had/have 160-170 so only a minor drop. I think it's taking the screenshot itself that caused a temporary drop there.
WOW. When I saw the first picture while I was reading your text and then I looked at the second picture for a moment I thought you had gone out and taken a photograph with your camera and then edited in the BE smg. :D Now THAT looks good.
